SCIAW: Chapter 134/135

Chapter 134: Darkness Under the Lamp

"Chika, go put your luggage away first. Your grandpa and I need to discuss your father's responsibilities."

The old man's gentle tone made Chika nod without hesitation.

"Alright, I'll put my luggage away first."

"I'll come back down to chat with Grandpa and Grandpa later."

The smile on the old man's face grew even wider.

See? His granddaughter was so sensible.

As they watched Chika leave, the old man turned his gaze to his son. But now, his expression was far less kind.

"You brat, what have you been doing?"

"???"

Daichi stared at his father blankly. What did I do this time?

"Dad means, why didn't you investigate Chika's school transfer more thoroughly?"

Seeing her husband's confused face, Fujiwara Maho, the daughter-in-law of the Fujiwara family, stepped in to remind him.

"Didn't you think it was strange from the beginning?"

"How could an ordinary private high school attract the attention of the Shinomiya family's children, and even those of the Sanzenin family?"

Daichi scratched his head, puzzled.

"I did investigate, but I never found a solid answer."

"The Sanzenin involvement in the Shinomiya family's affairs is already odd enough."

"Shinomiya Oko isn't incompetent, yet he was easily overthrown and even the Sanzenin head personally stepped in."

"I looked into Kaguya, but her connection with Sanzenin Nagi feels completely unexpected."

Maho didn't doubt her husband's investigative skills.

If he had already looked into the matter and still couldn't reach a definite conclusion, it meant there were deeper secrets involved.

"Even if we don't base our suspicions on the outcome, we can at least tell there's something connecting them."

"Then, did you investigate the club Chika joined?"

Daichi nodded.

"Of course I did. Otherwise, I wouldn't have agreed to let Chika participate in its outdoor activities."

"What about the club members?"

"I checked them too."

Daichi had thoroughly investigated the club's main members.

"Suzuki Sonoko, the second daughter of the Suzuki family. Her childhood friend, Ran Mouri. The heir of the Sanzenin family, Nagi Sanzenin. The strongest shrine maiden of the Miko family, Saginomiya Isumi."

"Then there's Kaguya Shinomiya and her exclusive maid, Hayasaka Ai. And finally, our daughter—plus a boy."

Maho raised an eyebrow. And what about the boy?

She couldn't help but ask, "What do you know about him?"

"The boy… According to my investigation, he's completely ordinary."

Daichi thought about it carefully.

From everything he had found, the boy seemed to be nothing more than a regular student.

"He grew up in an orphanage. Nothing remarkable about him—he doesn't socialize much, rarely speaks, and has almost no friends."

"After the orphanage closed during his middle school years, he started working part-time while continuing his studies."

"Since high school, he's been renting a house where a large-scale murder took place. He's lived there ever since."

"His life hasn't been great, but there's nothing unusual about his character or behavior."

Seeing her husband's obliviousness, Maho sighed helplessly.

The old man looked at his son with an expression of utter disbelief. Even the maternal grandfather glanced at his usually sharp son-in-law, speechless.

"You idiot! Doesn't it strike you as odd that there's only one ordinary person in a club full of elite young ladies?"

"In a group where everyone has significant status and background, there's just one person who is so unremarkably 'normal' don't you think that's suspicious?"

"Where's your brain? Did you eat it or something?"

Daichi blinked, then suddenly realized.

"Since Teitan High School is just a private school, I assumed he was just a regular student who happened to join the club."

Both old men sighed.

Who would have thought their son would make such an obvious mistake?

But, upon closer thought, the boy's background was extremely ordinary. At first glance, he was the definition of an average student.

His identity and history were completely clean. No deep social connections, no entanglements, just an unremarkable teenager.

No apparent ties to the other club members.

And crucially, he had enrolled at Teitan High School through normal means, with nothing suspicious in his records.

The only anomaly was that he had joined a club full of high-status young ladies.

Even so, the two grandfathers understood why their son hadn't noticed the oddity sooner.

After all, the school they were investigating wasn't a prestigious academy for nobility, it was just a standard private institution.

The only truly notable student there was Suzuki Sonoko, the daughter of a wealthy family.

Their realization was only possible after the fact, because they were piecing things together from the results.

If they had known from the beginning that Chika, Shinomiya Kaguya, and Sanzenin Nagi had transferred to Teitan High School because of a mystery, they would have reached this conclusion much earlier.

If that had been clear from the start, they were sure Daichi would have noticed how out of place the boy was.

"...Forget it. Some things aren't your fault."

The old man sighed.

Considering how unbelievably normal the boy appeared, it was understandable that Daichi hadn't been suspicious right away.

Even the old man himself had to admit, the deception was effective.

At least Daichi had thoroughly investigated the boy's background.

If anything, it was because he had investigated so deeply that he was misled by the very normalcy of the information he found.

"If we had foresight, we would have realized something was off about him long before you did."

"We're only recognizing the issue now because we've pieced together the bigger picture."

Mystery.

That was the real reason Chika was connected to Kaguya.

The old man was certain, his granddaughter had transferred to Teitan High School because of Kaguya.

But somewhere along the way, the reason had changed.

With mystery as the missing piece, it made perfect sense why an utterly normal boy had ended up in a club full of high-status young ladies.

Perhaps… aside from his background and identity, that boy was anything but ordinary.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Chapter 135: One More Powerful Than the Other

After putting her luggage away in her room, Chika headed downstairs, mentally prepared.

Facing her family, she maintained her usual bright smile.

"Grandpa, Grandpa, I'm coming down."

"Chika is here."

The old man's smile instantly brightened, completely different from the stern expression he had just moments ago.

"You just got back from Tsukikage Island. Do you want to rest for a day first?"

"That won't be necessary, Grandpa," Chika replied with a smile.

"I slept well on Tsukikage Island these past two days. I even slept until dawn last night."

"It's just that my appetite hasn't been great."

"Grandpa, I don't want to see any meat for the next week. Just serve vegetarian dishes for now."

The two old men immediately understood what she meant.

Not wanting to eat meat?

That could only mean she had seen something unpleasant, something that had ruined her appetite.

Their minds instantly turned to the events on Tsukikage Island.

The old man frowned.

"Chika, did you witness the cleanup process firsthand?"

"Not exactly."

In reality, Chika had seen some of the cleanup process, but since the ones being eliminated were inhumane drug dealers, it hadn't made her nauseous.

"What we couldn't accept was seeing how those drug dealers had handcuffed ordinary civilians on Tsukikage Island to conduct human experiments."

"Elderly, middle-aged men and women, young adults… even children."

"Especially the children, only six or seven years old, lying on the experiment tables with festering wounds, their faces twisted in agony as they died."

"Aside from Amamiya and Saginomiya, we all ended up vomiting."

Even now, as she recalled those scenes, Chika's face paled, and the nausea threatened to return.

Seeing their granddaughter's expression, the two old men were filled with heartache.

"You idiot! Can't you see that Chika looks unwell?"

"Go get her some water, now!"

Daichi, once again unfairly blamed, pointed at himself in disbelief before sighing and going to pour a glass of hot water.

"Thank you, Dad."

Taking the warm glass into her hands, Chika felt the lingering chill in her palms fade, and with it, some of the fear in her heart.

Looking at his daughter's pale face, Daichi also felt a pang of distress.

His daughter, usually so energetic and cheerful, had always been protected from the darkness of the world.

But now, she had been exposed to its cruelest depths.

After taking a small sip of hot water, Chika managed to suppress the nausea.

"Actually, Amamiya-san didn't recommend that we watch."

"But… this was a necessary step."

"Because one of us might eventually take that path, we need to understand that world more deeply."

"And human nature plays a crucial role in it."

"Grandpa, what do you think of Hayasaka's ability?"

"It's terrifying," the old man responded almost instantly.

"The ability to move through space… If used for assassination, it would be nearly impossible to escape."

Avoiding an assassin with spatial abilities was practically unrealistic.

To the old man, this kind of power was simply too overwhelming.

"It's not just about assassination, it's also invaluable for intelligence gathering."

"Just now, Hayasaka and I stood in the room for a full minute."

"And we heard everything you discussed."

The old man's pupils shrank slightly, realizing that the situation was even more complex than he initially thought.

Being able to travel through space and gather intelligence undetected… the applications of this ability were far too broad.

"Hayasaka's ability is already excessive, but it doesn't have any direct offensive power."

"But according to Amamiya, if Hayasaka pushes her ability to its limits, she should be able to trap people inside another dimension."

Chika highlighted some key points but deliberately left out the most critical details.

Her goal was to make her family aware of the supernatural world and to make them reconsider their previous assumptions.

"Additionally, Hayasaka's ability allows her to open portals by touching any material. even air, to enter an alternate dimension that perfectly mirrors reality."

This time, the old man fully grasped the implications.

The intelligence-gathering aspect was just a side effect of this power.

The true core of the ability was spatial manipulation.

If someone were to use it offensively, even the most powerful modern weapons wouldn't be able to counter it.

Unless an event like a planetary explosion occurred, collapsing space and forming a black hole, it was unlikely that anything could interfere with it.

The sheer deterrent force of this ability was overwhelming.

"The deterrent effect alone is already incredible but this is just one application of spatial abilities."

"If that child were to use it for assassination, no one in the world would be able to escape."

"That's not entirely true."

Chika immediately refuted her grandfather's statement.

"Is there actually someone who can counter that child's space ability?"

"Yes. When Hayasaka used her power, I noticed that Amamiya-san's eyes were always locked onto a single point."

The old man took a deep breath before silently turning to his son.

This son of his… had really stumbled upon something big.

Now, he was certain, that seemingly "ordinary" boy was, in reality, the most extraordinary of them all.

Status and background were irrelevant.

In the face of mystery, such things were no more significant than dust on the ground, frogs in a well, or mayflies under the sky.

"So, Kaguya also awakened a special ability?"

"Yes."

Chika didn't deny it.

"I was honestly scared when I first saw Kaguya use her power."

"The water in an entire swimming pool froze almost instantly."

"And when she activated her ability, her body practically turned into ice."

"I heard from Amamiya that if Kaguya masters her ability fully, she might be able to reach absolute zero."

The temperature at which atomic motion completely ceases.

Yet another heavyweight power.

Although the old man wasn't a physics expert, he understood enough.

All life functions rely on atomic movement.

But absolute zero could halt all atomic activity.

Which meant that the power Kaguya now possessed was far from weak, if anything, it was terrifyingly strong.